Steel mill conveyer



Sept. 15, 1942. G. A. BEE ErAL 2,295,526

' STEEL MILL CONVEYER Original FiledI May 25, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept, 15, 1942.

'G. A. BEE ET AL STEEL MILL CONVEYER original Filed may 25, 193s 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. l5, 1942 STEEL MILL CONVEYER George A. Bee, Detroit, and Jesse E. McBride, Highland Park, Mich., assignors to Palmer-Bee Company, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Original application May 25, 1938, Serial No.

210,012. Divided and this application February 3, 1940, Serial No. 317,060

2 Claims.

This invention relates to steel mill conveyers for use in transporting either hot or cold strip or plate steel in coils, such a conveyer being particularly useful in carrying strip or plate steel from the point in the manufacturing process where it is wound into coils to other departments of the plant.

This application is a division of our co-pending application, Serial No. 210,012, filed May 25, 1938, entitled Steel mill conveyer.

The coils of strip steel which this type of conveyer is particularly adapted to carry are made up of sheet steel varying from very thin gauge up to #10 gauge, or ,-36- inch in thickness. Various widths of this sheet steel are wound into coils starting at a core diameter of about 18 inches and Winding into a coil of 54 to 60 inches in diameter. The widths of the sheets vary from about 18 to 100 or more inches and therefore the height of the coils will vary within this range. The weight of each of the coils varies from a few hundred pounds up to possibly 30,000 pounds and the temperature may also vary from cold or normal condition to 1500" F.

Conveying equipment for coils of strip steel usually starts at the reels where the strip is wound into a coil, the required transfer to be effected by the conveyer being anywhere from several hundred to a thousand feet depending upon the layout of the plant, the conveyer generally terminating at a coil storage.

The first conveyers for the above outlined purpose consisted of two parallel strands of block type chain sliding on a track with the coils resting directly on the top of the chain strands. This type of installation was limited to very short lengths because of the excessive friction load produced by the sliding of the chains on the track. It has been estimated that the friction load produced by the sliding chains in such an installation might be as high as 50% of the total load, an excessive amount of power therefore being required.

Although the sliding chain type of coil conveyer had not been entirely satisfactory for the short length conveyers used in the older installations, it was reasonably successful. However, with changes in steel mill equipment, particularly in the use of so-called continuous strip mills, the distance of transportation increased to such an extent that the sliding chain type of equipment was very impractical. In order to decrease the friction between the sliding chains and the tracks various forms of antifriction devices were used. Most of these have been confined to a construction on which a plurality of rollers are provided to replace the track on which the chain operates. Such a construction necessitates a great number of mounting brackets and an elaborate lubrication system for the rollers, all of which must be distributed over the entire traverse of the chain, the lubrication systems in themselves entailing considerable eX- pense for installation.

It is also important in connection with a steel mill conveyer of the type above discussed that the coils be carried over a considerable distance up an incline and transferred to a conveyer travelling substantially at right angles to the first mentioned conveyer, and it is particularly important to transfer the coils from one conveyer line to another as smoothly and efficiently as possible without the use of lifting devices or other special equipment and to keep a weight record of the amount of material handled.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a transfer mechanism capable of transferring heavy material from a relatively long conveyer line travelling up an inoline to a second parallel chain conveyer line travelling substantially at right angles to the first mentioned conveyer line and to provide a transfer mechanism of a type which will bridge the gap between the conveyer lines above mentioned when the rst conveyer line terminates in sprockets of relatively large diameter.

The above and other objects of the invention will appear more fully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a top View showing two conveyer lines, one at right angles to the other, with means for automatically effecting transfer of the material carried from one of the conveyer lines to the other.

Fig. 2 is an elevation partly in section taken substantially on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1 and shows various parts of the mechanism used to elfect automatic transfer of the material.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown a conveyer of the type described in our co-pending application, Serial No. 210,012, of which this application is a division. Figs. 1 and 2 show the station in the conveyer travel where the conveyer line comprising a parallel chain conveyer l2 and I3 carried on an incline as shown in Fig. 2 meets a Vconveyer line lZa, |311 running substantially at right angles thereto. The mechanism shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is particularly designed to effect transfer of material such as coils 4I from one conveyer line to another. It is noted by reference to Fig. 2 that the sprockets I4 which carry the chains I2 and I3 are of relatively large diameter such that a substantial gap is left between the end of the conveyer I2, I3 and the adjacent perpendicularly positioned conveyer I2a, I3a. Figs. 1 and 2 show details of the mechanism used to transfer coils, or other material carried, from one conveyer line to another. There is shown in these two figures a conveyer line with load carrying chains I2 and I3, such as previously described, with a coil 4I in place on the top of these two chains. A sprocket I4 of the type previously described is shown at the end of such a conveyer line. As particularly shown in Fig. 1, the conveyer line made up of the parallel chains I2 and I3 is positioned at right angles to another chain conveyer line made up of chains I2a and I3a. The I2, I3 conveyer line is moving toward the left in Fig. 1, as indicated by the arrow, and the conveyer line I2a, I3a is moving at right angles to this path as indicated by the arrow in Fig. l. The details of the construction for driving the chain sprockets I4 are shown in Fig. 1 and comprise a head shaft 200 on which are mounted the two chain sprockets I4 and a pair of gears 20| which are driven from a countershaft 202 through pinions 203.

It is obvious that when a conveyer line such as I2, I3 is carried over large sprockets such as I4 that some special equipment must be provided to effect the transfer of a coil such as 4I from the I2, I3 conveyer to the |20., I3a. conveyer operating at right angles to it. This is mainly because of the space which must necessarily be left between the sprockets I4 and the adjacent conveyer line if the sprockets are to be of suicient diameter to carry the chains I2, I3 in a practical manner. It is, of course, possible to bridge this gap by rollers, but if this is done, a portion of the roller surface is left without power and therefore coils pushed onto this socalled roller bridge will remain there unless some means is provided to push them on further. It is, therefore, a problem to provide a power means for moving the coils over this portion of the travel and set them upon the conveyer I2a., I3a which must, of course, be moving continuously if maximum efficiency is to be maintained. For the solution of the above outlined problem, two caterpillar transfer chains 204 and 205 which are each carried over a pair of small sprockets shown at 206 and 201 are shown in Fig. 2. These sprockets are so positioned, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, that they carry the two auxiliary load supporting chains 204, 205 between the two main conveyer chains I2, I3 and make a moving chain platform from a point well back of the center of the sprockets I 4 to a point well ahead of them, the outer end of this auxiliary load supporting chain travel terminating between a series of the short rollers 209, asv shown at 208 in Fig. 1. It is noted that the pitch of the chains 204, 205 is small enough so that sprockets 203, 201 may be of small diameter. It is possible with such an arrangement to bring the level portion of the chain run reasonably close to adjacent parts. It is ap-p-arent on inspection of Fig. 1 that the coil 4I will be carried by the auxiliary load supporting chains 204, 205 up to the end of the short roller units 2Q!! and that pushing force will be available over practically the entire travel, the main conveyer chains I2, I3 dropping away as they follow the circumference of the large diameter sprockets I4 and the supporting and carrying function then assumed by the chains 204, 205. A chain drive is provided for the auxiliary chains 204, 205 by a large sprocket 2I0 on the main head shaft 200 which is connected by a chain 2II to a sprocket 2I2 on the shaft for the two sprockets 206 (Fig. 2). For the purpose of receiving the coils from the end of the auxiliary load supporting chains 204, 205, there is provided an automatic coil lowering device indicated at 2I3 in Fig. 2. This coil lowering unit 2I3 is pivotally mounted at 2I4 and is built upon a frame 2I5 receiving its main support, aside from the pivotal mounting 2 I4, from an eccentric strap bracket 2I5. An eccentric 2I'I is mounted within the bracket 2I5 and is rotated by a shaft 2I8 and the entire frame 2I5 is therefore raised or lowered by the rotation of the eccentric 2I'I, the unit pivoting at 2I4. Three roller support units 2I9, 220 and 22| are mounted to form a roller table, roller unit 220 projecting upwardly between the two chain runs I2a, I3a, and the roller units 2I9, 22| projecting upwardly at each side of the aforementioned chain runs, as shown in Fig. 2. It is also noted by reference to Fig. 2 that when the automatic coil lowering device 2 I 3 is in its maximum upward position, as shown in Fig. 2, the tops of the rollers 2I9, 220, 22| are well above the top surfaces of the chains I2a, I3a. However, on downward movement of the coil lowering device 2I3, the tops of the rollers above mentioned will be somewhat lower than the chains I2a, I3a. It is apparent that when a coil such as 4I is pushed by the caterpillar chains onto the coil lowering device, it will slide on the rollers of the units ZIB, 220, 22I until it is over the chains I2a., I3a, and for the purpose of arresting the movement of the coil in this direction, an adjustable spring bumper unit 222 (Fig. 2) is provided. The spring bumper unit 222 also has a limit switch 22211 operably connected therewith so that when a coil such as 4I is pushed upon the table formed by the roller units 2I9, 220, 22|, the contact of the coil against the spring bumper unit 222 closes the aforementioned switch, 222a, controlling current to an electric motor 2 I'Ia connected to revolve shaft 2I8 and positioned behind eccentric 2II in Fig. 2. The motor is thus put in operation to revolve the shaft 2 I8 and the eccentric 2I1 at a relatively slow rate. It will be evident upon inspection of Fig. 2 that this movement of the eccentric 2 I'I will cause the frame 2I5 and the rollers carried thereby to lower from the upper position shown in Fig. 2 to a position such that the chains of the |20., I3a conveyer line will assume support of the coil being transferred and carry it away along the path of the said I2a, I3a conveyer line. The relative positions of the parts and the rate of rotation of the shaft 2 I8 are such that the level of the rollers 2I9, 220, 22| will be below the level of the top of the I 2a., I3a conveyer line for a time sufcient for the coil being transferred to be carried clear of the tops of the rollers before the rollers again assume their maximum upper position shown in Fig. 2. It is understood that the limit switch and the electric controls for the motor actuated by contact of a coil against bumper 222 are so arranged that the eccentric 2II and the shaft 2I8 will be put in motion for only one revolution and will terminate their rotation so as to leave the several parts in the position shown in Fig. 2, the unit then being in position to receive the next coil to be transferred.

It is especially to be noted that the provision of the caterpillar transfer chains with their small sprockets and the positioning of the chains between the rollers makes possible a pushing action over substantially the entire diameter of the coils up to the time the coils reach the edge of the automatic coil lowering device, and because of the diameter of the coils, the push on one side of a coil continues until the coil is well over the conveyer chains I2a, i3d. It is also noted that the top line of the rollers on the lowering device 2l3 is slanted in such a way that the action of gravity helps to effect movement of the coil towards the adjustable spring bumperl 222, as shown by the unit in the position it occupies in Fig. 2.

Although we have described our invention as applied to a particular conveyer unit found p-r ctical in operation, we do not desire to limit ourselves to the specic details disclosed herein, but rather to the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. The combination with a conveyer of the type having a pair of transversely spaced parallel supporting tracks, a pair of load carrying chains one on each of said tracks with each of said chains being supported and driven upon its respective track, and a second similar transversely spaced parallel chain conveyer positioned substantially at right angles to said rst mentioned parallel chain conveyer; of mechanism for effecting transfer of material from said first mentioned conveyer line to said second conveyer line comprising a pair of roller platforms extending beyond and spaced transversely of said i'lrst mentioned parallel chains and bridging between the end of the effective load carrying portion of said load carrying chains of said first mentioned conveyer line and the adjacent second mentioned chain conveyer, and an auxiliary load carrying caterpillar chain positioned between said rst two transversely spaced parallel chains and extending into the space between said roller platforms in such position as to form a bridging platform with a central drive portion between said first and second conveyer lines.

2. In a conveyer, a pair of transversely spaced parallel chains forming a load carrying conveyer line terminating in relatively large diameter sprockets around which said parallel conveyer chains are passed for a return run, a second pair of transversely spaced parallel chains forming a second load carrying conveyer line extending substantially at right angles to said first mentioned conveyer line and adjacent to the end of said rstconveyer line, a bridging table having portions spaced transversely of and extending beyond the said first mentioned conveyer line, a separate auxiliary load carrying chain positioned for operation between the transversely spaced conveyer chains of said first mentioned conveyer line and mounted to extend beyond the end ofv said first mentioned conveyer line into the space between said bridging table portions, a vertically Y moveable receiving table having a plurality of upwardly extending portions with one such portion positioned adjacent the end of said auxiliary load carrying chain and adjacent said spaced bridging table portions and another such portion extending upwardly between the transversely spaced parallel chains of said second conveyer line thereby to receive material transferred by the said bridging table portions and said auxiliary load carrying chain which form a bridging platform in the space between the end of the effective load carrying portion of said first conveyer line and the receiving table on which said material is received for transfer to said second; conveyer line on subsequent vertical movement of said receiving table.

GEO. A. BEE.

JESSE E. MCBRIDE. 

